ture but what is profitable for our instruction. I propose however now to treat only of those two particulars of the genealogy of Christ, which are mentioned in the text, namely, that He was "the Son of David, the son of Abraham." Thus much had indeed been long beforehand promised to both those eminent persons: to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" (Gen. 22. 18;) to David, "Of the fruit of thy body shall I set upon thy seat;" (Ps. 132. 12;) that seat, of the which it is elsewhere said, "I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever." (2 Sam. 7. 13.) And for the very reason that it had been so promised, it was important that it should so take place; and should be recorded for us to know that it had taken place. Here then we see how the Divine Providence disposes the wayward actions of mankind, so as to accomplish in their result the secret will of the Almighty. Each of the intermediate persons, from Abraham to David, and from David to Christ, had liberty to choose for themselves, both what alliances

they would make in marriage, and whether they would make any at all. And nothing would seem beforehand more improbable, than that this line of succession should have been regularly preserved, and so preserved as that it could be published and proved. Yet "with God all things are possible." (Matt. 19. 26.) Nor of all things, is there in any, a more striking proof of his power, than that He thus orders, to his predetermined purposes, the actions which we perform according to our own choice. We have each liberty to transgress or to obey, to reject or to believe, to do evil or to do good; and to our eternal ruin or eternal happiness we exercise this heavenly power. Yet He all the while so wisely presides, that there is no evil we can do, no sin we can commit, however perilous to ourselves, however hateful towards Him, but He will turn it into good, the final good of all. For this probably is the true account of his permitting any evil whatever to exist one moment in the world. It is for the furtherance of his purposes in the trial of his creatures; purposes

which we in vain attempt to fathom, but of which we may know of a certainty that they are wise, and merciful, and just.

Of these principles we have then a very signal instance in Christ being the Son of David, in the fact recorded in the sixth verse of this chapter, that David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" asks Job of old. (Job 14. 4.) Who could have thought, that from an alliance of origin so foul as that of David with the wife of Uriah, should in any degree, however remote, have been derived a blessing to the whole race of mankind? Yet does this Gospel in the very first verse proclaim that Christ was the Son of David; and thus reminds us that from the issue of iniquity so gross, was brought about the consummation of good so infinite.

And here some one perhaps will be tempted to reason: If God can from evil thus bring forth good, why need I be so much afraid to do evil? Why am I so forbidden to commit sin, if even sin be made

the occasion of mercy and grace? We answer, that God hath forbidden it; He hath declared that He will certainly punish it. We ask, what consolation is it to the convict, that others are the better for his imprisonment or death? What satisfaction will it be, under the sentence of eternal fire, for a man to think, that from his sins now punished in himself, some use of warning or of improvement may have been derived to the rest of mankind? Certainly none. Each man must in this sense "bear his own burden;" (Gal. 6. 5;) must answer for what he has done, or for what he has left undone, acccording to his own knowledge, means, and opportunities, not according to the result which may be derived out of his conduct by its connexion with that of others, and by the superintendance of an inscrutable Providence. The sins of murder and of adultery were none the less sinful in David, though they led eventually to the birth of Solomon; and though through him, according to the flesh, came the Saviour of the world. These sins were none the less sinful; and

had they not been repented of fully and effectually, they would have been visited none the less surely with everlasting destruction. Happily, however, by God's grace they were so repented of. Long ere the birth of Solomon the word of the prophet had gone forth, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin." (2 Sam. 12. 13.)

Here then we may derive another very interesting lesson from the text before us. Christ was indeed the Son of David, who had greatly sinned; but He was also the Son of David, who had deeply repented. It was in this his penitent condition, in that depth of contrition and self abasement, in that honesty of confession and earnestness of amendment, which above all other qualities entitled him to be called the man after God's own heart, (see 1 Sam. 13. 14. Acts 13. 22.) it was in this state, that he was blest with Solomon for a son, and became a father after the flesh of Christ our Lord. Thus may we, in this instance of his parentage, see an illustrious example of repentance, as we have also in his being the son of Abraham a memorial of the